Asia’s aviation industry should consider recruiting more women in a bid to grow diversity and pre-empt recruitment issues.
Speaking at Routes Silk Road 2019 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, ACI Asia-Pacific regional director Patti Chau said although growth has tailed off since 2017, when the region saw the highest growth in ten years, it remains the dominant trend.
And with liberalisation across the region set to drive further increases, she argued the industry needs to tap into a previously underutilised resource.
Chau said: “There is a great opportunity for more gender balance and we need to recognise that gender diversity is an issue and we need to see more women working in the industry.”
She added such a change would benefit far more people than those immediately connected to aviation as about 30.2million jobs in the region are supported by it.
Jordan Karamalakov, IATA’s area manager Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, agreed the Asia-Pacific region was set for a boost with a doubling of demand in air passengers in the next 20 years.
But he warned the countries he represents are in danger of being outstripped by their neighbours if safety and security matters aren’t addressed.
He added: “Without having enough airport co-ordination with the airlines ... the growth cannot happen.”
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